The present disclosure relates to garage door assemblies. In particular, the present disclosure relates to horizontal garage door assemblies.
Typical residential garage doors, formed by a plurality of panels connected at horizontally-extending side edges, open vertically through the use of a motor and belt or chain system. Due to the vertical movement of the garage door, the size of the panels is limited as the power capacity of the motor limits the ability of the system to lift the panels from a closed position to an open position. This, in turn, limits the size of an opening that can be provided in a garage enclosure. If a larger garage door is desired, costs are greatly increased as motor capacity, counter balances, and springs must be increased to lift the larger panels. The panels must also be reinforced to support the increased length of the panels to prevent sagging when the panels are in the open position. In addition, because the motor must lift the panels from the closed position to the open position against gravity, the risk of injury may increase in cases when malfunction occurs. However, vertically-opening garage doors are still in widespread use in North America due to strict safety standards such as Underwriters Laboratories (UL) standards.